(ATLANTIC HIGHLANDS, NJ) -- First Avenue Playhouse presents True West by Sam Shepard across three weekends (August 17-18, August 23-25, and August 30-31). Brothers Austin and Lee seem like opposites. Austin is a hardworking scriptwriter and Lee is a homeless Thief. When a Hollywood producer picks Lee's idea for a 'true-to-life'  western over Austin's script, the brothers turn on each other. A writing session gets ugly in this dark comedy.

The production is directed by June Ravert.

Tickets are $30. Students & Seniors can get tickets for $25 on Fridays and Sundays.  Doors open 30 minutes prior to curtain.  Performances take place August 17, 23, 24, 30, 31 at 7:30pm; August 18, 25 at 2:30pm. First Avenue Playhouse is located at 123 First Avenue in Atlantic Highlands, New Jersey.

Sam Shepard’s first New York plays, Cowboys and The Rock Garden, were produced by Theatre Genesis in 1964. For several seasons, he worked with Off-Off-Broadway theatre groups including La MaMa and Caffe Cino. Eleven of his plays won Obie Awards, including Chicago, The Tooth of the Crime, and Curse of the Starving Class. Other award-winning plays include Fool for Love, True West, A Lie of the Mind, and Buried Child, for which he won a Pulitzer Prize in 1979.

In 1986, Shepard was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and he received the Gold Medal for Drama from the Academy in 1992. He was inducted into the Theater Hall of Fame two years later. As a writer and director, he filmed Far North and Silent Tongue. As an actor, he appeared in numerous films, including The Right Stuff, Days of Heaven and Resurrection. His final works of prose, The One Inside and Spy of the First Person, were published in 2017, the year of his death.

True West premiered at the Magic Theatre in San Franciso on July 10, 1980.

The First Avenue Playhouse, 123 First Ave. Atlantic Highlands, New Jersey is one of the oldest continuously running community theatres in Monmouth County. Located in downtown Atlantic Highlands, The First Avenue Playhouse is a dessert theatre that provides a variety of live theatre choices such as comedies or musicals as well as original productions by local playwrights.